Compulsion
May 27, 2008
“So he went his way and was alone. But the way of the world was past belief, as he saw the strange entanglements of passions and circumstance and compulsion everywhere, but always the dread insomnia of compulsion. It was fear, the ultimate fear of death, that made men mad. So always he must move on, for if he stayed, his neighbors wound the strangling of their fear and bullying round him. There was nothing he could touch, for all, in a mad assertion of the ego, wanted to put a compulsion on him and violate his intrinsic solitude. It was the mania of cities and societies and hosts, to lay a compulsion upon a man, upon all men. For men and women alike were mad with the egoistic fear of their own nothingness.”
” A dangerous phenomenon in the world is a man of narrow belief, who denies the right of his neighbour to be alone.”
- The Man Who Died, D H Lawrence
I’m trying to understand what this means. What does it mean to you?
May 28, 2008 at 10:30 am
it means that the world is screwed and solitude is preferable to being with other “fellow” humans. better to be alone by yourself, than in crowd, smothered by their sad attempts to overcome their ego by thrashing on yours or just by their sheer idiocy.
May 28, 2008 at 2:52 pm
‘Ello Cath. Corrriiight! You win a goat, sponsored by Lexus. My summarized comment to that statement is:
*SIGH*
May 28, 2008 at 5:24 pm
who is Cath? Gawd - I am so bored I think my brain has turned to mush. Are you reading D.H. Lawrence now? Or was that a random quote?
May 28, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Also, why a goat? And why Lexus? Am I missing some obscure Indonesian reference? If we are being random, I would much rather have an Emu from Mazda please
May 28, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Nay, you shall have a goat from Lexus. It has four legs. Emus have two. They have yet to break into the biped market. Yamaha reigns in that segment my dear so you shall have a goat. It is all I can afford. And yes I’m reading DH Lawrence - the man who died. It’s about JEEBUS risen from the dead and he comes back as a human and faaaaalls in luuuurve. *GASP* Oh the blasphemy… Eh old English books here are cheeeap (like around 3 bucks-ish) and the print edition is pretty recent too even if the publisher is some random company in India.
PSh don’t you give me that missy. I know it’s you Catherine. I don’t know who else is likely to die from boredom from her internship or who would even ask about what I am reading. If it’s not you, then show thyself stranger.